Literature & Music
Composer and Pianist Lenny Cavallaro
An accomplished pianist, Lenny Cavallaro was a top prizewinner in the J.S. Bach International Competition for Pianists and subsequently played that composer’s Six Partitas to the highest critical acclaim in Carnegie Recital Hall.
Cavallaro earned his Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree from West Virginia University, and has served on the music faculty of several colleges.
In 2015, Cavallaro was admitted to Vox Saeculorum, a group of contemporary composers who write (to at least a considerable extent) in the baroque style. Later that year he wrote a conjectural "completion" to Contrapunctus XIV from Bach's unfinished masterpiece, The Art of Fugue.
Published Musical Compositions
Cavallaro has written two sonatas in the baroque style (for violin and clavier; oboe and clavier), a keyboard partita, and a suite for double-reed trio (including a three-part invention and two fugues). He has also composed a pair of piano sonatas in the classical style, “Songs Without Words” loosely modeled after Mendelssohn, and a number of more Romantic works closer to Schubert in spirit.
In 2013, Forton Music released three volumes of Cavallaro’s music for woodwinds – the Sonata for Oboe (or Flute) and Piano, Op.1, Songs Without Words for Oboe (or Flute) and Piano, Op. 2 and Three Pieces for Cor Anglais [English horn] and Piano, Op. 3. The same firm published his Four Romances for Cor Anglais and Piano, Op. 6, and Suite for Oboe, Cor Anglais, and Bassoon, Op. 7 in 2014, and his Sonata #2 in E minor for Oboe (or Flute) and Piano (or Harpsochord), Op. 8 in 2015.
In 2014, Broadbent and Dunn released the Sonata No. 1 in D Minor for Violin and Piano (or Harpsichord), Op. 4, and “Raindrops” Fantasia for Violin and Piano, Op. 5.
Interview
Conducted by Sonia Oram in 2011, this interview with pianist and composer Lenny Cavallaro details his works, provides his thoughts on the craft of recomposition, and foreshadows insight into his literary works early into the publication of his novels.
"...a pianist to reckon with"
- New York Times
"Listening to Cavallaro, one is at once reminded of Glenn Gould, not only because of the tiny chair and bizarre, eccentric mannerisms, but because of the profound sincerity of the performance and the masterful delivery of Sebastien Bach’s music."
- Mexico City (translation)
"His quick wit and deadpan commentary amused and engaged his listeners."
- Southbury, CT
